Free King's Quest tribute sees light of day after 9 years

(All rights reserved - Phoenix Online Studios)

After nine years in development and two cease and desist requests from copyright owners, a free fan-made computer game The Silver Lining is finally ready for release on July 10.

King's Quest was a long-running and dearly loved adventure game series, starting in 1980 with a prequel called Wizard and the Princess and ending in 1998 with King's Quest: Mask of Eternity (sometimes referred to as King's Quest VIII).

Mask of Eternity was a disappointment to many fans who had grown fond of the King's Quest graphical style and were not pleased by its transition from to the 3D action genre.

So it was that The Silver Lining was born. Though they aren't allowed to call it 'King's Quest IX', volunteers at Phoenix Online Studios always intended it to bring the King's Quest series to a more satisfactory conclusion.

Despite its long history, project director Cesar Bittar wanted to make The Silver Lining accessible to newcomers as well, keeping up with storytelling innovations in other games such as PC game The Longest Journey and its PC & Xbox sequel Dreamfall, and using his team's collective experience in the film and video game industries.

Now that current rights holders Activision have given their permission, Episode One of The Silver Lining will be made available from July 10 at TSL-game.com.